News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1887-03-31
MRS. GREENS MILLIONS.
She Has Added 70 Them In Chicago az well
as In N. Y. Ciiy.
[From the Chieago Herald.l

Hetty Green, the richest woman IN
America. comes to Chicago once In
while TO attend to her enormous real
estate interests here. When IN town
she usually stops at the Southern Hotel,
a humble but respectable hostelry,,
v here she takes a room without nre, ana
for it, with board, pays Sl.S5 DAY.
The last time Mrs. Green was here the
weather CHANGED to be wintrY, but she
went around town wearing an old straw
hat, a black VEIL and an old shawl
Sometimes she stops with sister-ln-laW
on the West Side, poor woman VINO
has pretty hard struggle to get along.
Stopping there is even cheaper for Hetty
than at the Southern Hotel. When at
her sisters she does her own washing
to save laundry bills.
Just after the great fire of 1871 Nrs.
Green loaned about $500, 900 on Chicago
real estate, gilt edged, and at a stiff
rate of interest. On a portion of these
loans she finally foreclosed, and gradu-
ally purchased other property, until her
total investment here reached something
like $500. 900. This property is now
worth nearly million. Much OF 1t IS
down town business property, earning a
iDaluSOIu6 IGNeuuS. ~ ID ~ AOSN - ~
this property that Mrs. Green OCCASION
IaIly visits Chicago. Her agent never
knows when she is coming, as she has a
habit of dropping In on hlm unaWares.
She is very keen old woman. ohe
goes about to building after building,
inspecting walls and floors, looking after
the work of the janitors, &c. Her last
visit 60 Slie%so Is greatly regretted by
ia colored janitor employed in one OF her
| buildings. He saw a cranky-looking
old woman prowling around the premises
one day, and not getting satisfactory
answers to his interrogatories, he threw
| her into the street The janitor was
mot discharged-he was a faithful man
but he had his wages cut down 81 a
week, and they have been cut ever
since.
Mrs. Green is an inveterate speculater.'
When the activity in Wall street began
last fall she left her New Hampshire
farm and went to New York in order to
be near the speculative heart. To avoid
hote bills in the city she went to i've
in cheap boarding house at Far Rock
away, Mrs. Green never wilfully wasted
dollar since she came into the poss-
ession of the fortune of her father, who
slew whales for a living. Whaling was
a big business in the days when Mrs.
Green's gruf parent sent craft out from
New Bedford and pulled his clay pipe
until they came back with cargoes OF
oil to add to his big pile. When he
went hence he left 1000, 900 to his
daughter Hetty, and an aunt of the lat
ter subsequently, added SO, 900, 900 more
when she had bade adieu to worldly
cares. Miss Hetty, for she was a spin
ster, did not let her heap of gold mil
dew. She kept it in such constant use
that the milling was worn off the'edges,
and when she welded she could have
signed her name to check for $50, 600,
BOO if it had pleased her to do so. just
as soon as the nuptial event was over
she resumed her money-making ways,
and succeeded in adding so, 900, 900
more to her fortune She proposes to
continue her money getting occupation
as long as she is spared to do it.
She was formerly the great power III
the Stock of the Philadelphia and Read.
ing Railroad, which is now prominent
in stock speculative operations. She
corneredit Swith great regularity three
times year, and made spectators who
were short of it pay for being on the
wrong side. Every one of her stock
Bqueezers brought vast profits to her and
She naturally caused a repetition of
them as often as practicable. When she
had extracted all she could from Read.
ING as her stock she transferred her
operations to the Louisville S Nashville
Railroad. She is now the practical
owner of the property, and also of the
Georgia Central. Her operations In
n Al L, II.
tion have made her famous She has
run the price up and down, and made
hundreds upon hundreds of thousands
of dollars by the process. There has
been a big, long bull movement in
louisville for the past few months. 1t
has been said all ong that the steady
rise in the stock was due to buying Of
London account. There is now, how
ever. little doubt that Mrs Green has
been the power at work in the stock.
She is estimated to have made at least
81, 900, 900 in her big deal. The stock
was moved up in the face of adverse
conditions, for the showing of the road
has not been good. The only thing that
Mrs. Green had in her favor was the
general market, but that would not have
carried the stock up. The operation was
a plain one, but it required great bold
ness and the uss of vast sums of money.
The street at large had no confidence in
louisville, and was disposed to bear it.
The higher it went the greater the drop
would be, spectators thought, and they
kept increasing the short interest.
Mrs. Green bought the stock that the
bears went short of. The bears had to
borrow to make their deliveries to Mrs.
Green. They relied on a smash in the
price to buy the stock to return that
waich they had borrowed, and they
also hoped to buy at less price than
they sold. In the latter case the differ
.ence between the selling price and the
buying price would have represented
the profit of the bears The smash,
however, never came Mrs. Green had
a grip on the stock IRON. She kept
walking the price NJ she had got
the bears ali 81 fhey saw their
losses getting BIZ "a and finally began
to try to return their borrowings before
their position became even worse than it
was. Mrs. Green supplied the stock
that was required, and the difference
between the price at which she bought
and the price at which she sold repre-
sented her profit, and the loss of the
bears.
Mrs. Green dresses as comfortably as
AN industrious washerwoman, but no
more fashionably. She wears her clothes
until they are worn out, and by that
time they are ready for the paper mill,
She rides down town in horse car,
and may have with her $1,000, 600 IN
bonds done up in piece of newspaper.
Nobody would suspect her of being
worth 1000, 900 cents.